CNN-IBN Interview with Binayak (Video+Transcript)
It was an emotional reunion for human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen, who walked free from jail on Tuesday after two years, with his family and friends. Coming out of jail to the cheers of his supporters, a frail looking Sen said that his movement against state violence would continue and that he feared for his life.
Excerpts from an exclusive interview with Dr Binayak Sen:
CNN-IBN: Is there a sense of relief for you today, more than anything else?
Binayak Sen: Certainly there is a sense of relief. I am happy to be back with my friends and family. But I regard myself as some kind of an index case, a demonstration of what the government intends to do. There are hundreds more who are in a similar situation who do not have the backing that my case has been able to generate. There are thousands who are being displaced from their land and their access to natural resources across India. So we are in no kind of an illusion about the fundamental situation not changing in any way. But at the same time, it is personally very good to be out of jail.
CNN-IBN: When you came out of jail, you put it very clearly that you feared for your life. Is it the Chhattisgarh government that you fear?
Binayak Sen: The Chhattisgarh government has shown a great absence of morality in the legal campaign that they have conducted against me. Nevertheless, the legal campaign is in its last leg and has in fact collapsed. Now that it has been ineffective in silencing me, one expects that there would be recourse to some other measures to silence my voice. But my security lies with the people of Chhattisgarh and India. So one has to take the chances as they come.
CNN-IBN: How do you respond to your critics that Dr Sen is a Naxal sympathiser? You know that is the charge. It is like when you came out of jail you said that you still don’t know why you were kept in jail for two years.
Binayak Sen: I am not a Naxal sympathiser neither am I a government sympathiser. I have my own agenda which I share with other human rights workers across the country and the world. And that agenda is the agenda of peace. I think the military engagement is futile and cannot solve the problems of the people. We need to replace the military engagement with a political one.
CNN-IBN: You condemn Naxal violence as well?
Binayak Sen: We have always condemned Naxal violence and we do not support violence of any kind. At the same time we also condemn state violence and the structural violence that keeps the poor always poor.
CNN-IBN: You are even-handedly condemning both the violence.
Binayak Sen: No, no. We are not even-handed, we have our own agenda. We say that political engagement must take place and military agenda must stop.
CNN-IBN: You have been accused of being a Naxal sympathiser. Many of your supporters want to know why you met a particular Naxalite in jail so many times?
Binayak Sen: Firstly, I met him under jail supervision. It was after permission from a senior superintendent of police. There was nothing secretive about my meeting with this person. I met him because he had health problems and I facilitated his treatment. Secondly, I helped him to obtain legal help which I think is the duty of every citizen.
CNN-IBN: Dr Sen, you have become the hope and symbol of courage across the world. Did you think that you would become this celebrity of sorts for human rights activism?
Binayak Sen: I have been watching from the sidelines with a bemused expression on my face. I have been taken totally aback by the campaign that has come. The campaign is not mine, it is the people who participated in it. And this is the condition across the world. People are alarmed about the state of human rights today. So it is not my campaign, it is a voice of the disquiet.
CNN-IBN: You are one of the top doctors of this country but you decided to venture into something which few others would have done. You have any misgivings about living your life differently or is this the life you were chosen to live?
Binayak Sen: I am extremely fortunate to have been able to make some minor contributions to these enormous issues.
CNN-IBN: Will you stay put in Chhattisgarh?
Binayak Sen: Yes, am certainly going to stay in Chhattisgarh but this campaign for peace will necessitate some amount of travel across India. I have not exactly decided what my programme is going to be but I will continue to work for peace and human rights of health care.
CNN-IBN: You came out of jail smiling. There seems to be no anger in you. There is nothing that you have against the state?
Binayak Sen: I am angry at the kind of suffering that thousands of people are needlessly undergoing. But this is the life we live and we have to make our own adjustments. But yes, it was a magic moment for me to be reunited with my family and friends.
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